The Effect of Sex Education Intervention on Sexual Knowledge of Female Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities

The present study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a Sex Education Intervention on sexual knowledge in a group of female adolescents with intellectual disabilities. This research was conducted in a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The sample included 30 female adolescents with intellectual disabilities that were selected through convenience sampling and randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group (15 participants in each group). The experimental group received 18 sessions of a Sex Education Intervention while the control group did not receive this intervention. Assessment of Sexual Knowledge in Adolescents (ASKA) was used to measure sexual knowledge of the adolescents. The results showed that Sex Education Intervention improved general sexual knowledge and subscales like parts of the body, public and private parts and places, puberty, relationships, social sexual boundaries, safe sex practices, and sex and the law in the experimental group. However, no effect of the intervention was observed in subscales of masturbation and sexuality. The present research emphasizes the importance of Sex Education Intervention in increasing sexual knowledge in female adolescents with intellectual disabilities.